Mall Date
by Writer25
Summary: Its been three years since they've seen each other so Fred and Jodie decide to meet at the mall for some catching up. ONESHOT


Fred's leg bounced nervously as he waited at the smoothie hut in the food court. He remembered that she loved strawberries and so that's what he ordered ; a strawberry peach smoothie for her and a tropical pineapple orange for him. It had been almost three years since he had seen her. Three years since the showdown. Three years Joe gave up being the Warp Wizard. Three years since Mad Jack...

"Hey Fred." A soft voice interrupted his train of thought.

Fred stood up to face her and noticed how much she changed over the passed three years. Her skirt was pleated and now shorter if that was possible and her blouse had long sleeves and had frills at the cuffs. Her long curly hair was held back in a headband and she wore large hoop earrings.

They both looked away blushing lightly until Fred cleared his throat and held out his hand to shake hers. She touched his hand lightly and drew him in for a hug.

"I've missed you, you know that?" She whispered with a slight giggle. "I've actually missed you."

"Of course," Fred chuckled hugging her back. "I am an incredible person after all."

They broken apart quickly, feeling more than a little embarrassed but at least the tension was broken.

"So," Jodie said sitting down and pulling her smoothie towards her. "Freddi and Samantha say hi."

"Cool," Fred nodded. "Sam says hi too."

Jodie nodded. "And what about Joe?"

"Joe?"

"Yes Joe. Doesn't say hi?"

"Oh." Fred looked away. "Actually I didn't tell him that I was meeting you."

He glanced back towards her and saw that her shoulders deflated a little. Before he realized what he was doing he reached out and gently laid his hand on top of hers. She stiffened for a moment but then slowly laced her fingers through his. He noticed that her nails were glittery and purple.

"He isn't mad at you," Fred said softly. "He isn't mad at any of you. He's just... still upset about what happened. It was really intense and he's still a bit raw."

"But Anna survived didn't she?" Jodie said. "And you three are okay. Why doesn't he move on already?"

Fred took a deep breath and tried to muster up some patience. "I don't think that killing your uncle and having your baby sister almost die in front of you something that you can just get over in three years."

Fred shuddered at the memory. Anna had layed on the floor unmoving as blood ran from the open wound on her head and Sam was screaming that they had to put pressure on the wound. Smoke and debris had been flying everywhere, Joe was screaming in rage, Mad Jack was yelling, there were flashes of green like and then the whole world seemed to explode and then-

"Fred." Jodie's voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Huh?" He blinked in surprise and found that his heart was pounding.

Jodie looked at him in concern. "Are you okay? You kind of blinked out on me."

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Fred said squeezing her hand lightly. "Let's talk about something else though, okay?"

"Alright," She smiled. "Anything good happen in your life lately?"

"I won a few baseball games for my school's team lately," He smiled proudly. "And I'm also thinking about trying out for the Junior league High School football team this summer."

Jodie giggled and he felt his smile widen.

"And maybe I'll even try out for the baseball team too while I'm at it. Can't let these amazing muscles and athletic skills go to waste."

Jodie laughed out loud and Fred couldn't help but laugh along with her. More matter how much they had fought in the pass he truly did miss her. He noticed that their hands were still intertwined but didn't try to move away.

"So what have you been up to?" He asked.

He noticed her change of expression immediate as she looked away from him evasively. "Oh you know, nothing much. Just doing uninteresting girly stuff like shopping, painting my nails, and-"

"Jodie," Fred raised an eyebrow. "What are hiding?"

Jodie sighed and pouted. "Uncle Joe offered to start tutoring me in magic. I didn't want to say anything though because I know that Joe still hates him and I didn't want to bring up more bad memories."

Fred wanted to correct her and tell her that Joe was just a little upset, but that would have been a lie. Although he was pretty sure that Joe didn't hate his uncle Joe, he still blamed him for what happened and not training him before hand instead of letting Joe face Mad Jack almost completely unprepared.

Jodie sighed, probably reading his expression correctly. "Uncle Joe misses him too you know. And Anna. It breaks is heart that is own niece and nephew refuses to see him."

"There's nothing Sam and I can really do about that." Fred shrugged. "Joe could barely even speak to us for the first three months. Just give him time I guess."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jodie grumbled. "Still, time traveling just isn't the same without the chance of meeting you three dorks."

"Yeah and I miss you guys driving us crazy." He smirked.

Jodie gave him a long slow smile and Fred found himself staring at her lips which were lightly glossed and shimmering. He looked back at her face quickly and smiled back. They sipped their smoothies without speaking for a little while and watched the other mall patrons. There were more than a few couples holding hands and eating in the food court as well as a group of giggling high school girls, and smaller clusters of guys trying to impress them.

He felt Jodie's thumb gently start to caress his hand and was surprised to find that he liked it.

"Why did you agree to meet me, Fred?" Jodie asked him suddenly.

"Huh?" Fred blinked at her and felt his neck heat up. "W-well, I- I wanted to I guess."

"Well..." Jodie drawled out. "If you could, would you say... want to meet with me again?"

Fred shrugged and felt immensely uncomfortable. This was supposed to be just them meeting up to talk about old times and check up on each other. They almost could say that they hated each other three years ago, so was she asking him out now?

As he mulled the thought of them over he saw her smile slowly begin to fade. With a small sad sigh she shrugged and slowly started to withdraw her fingers from his. Without thinking Fred tightened his grip on her fingers and she looked up at him in surprise.

"You know," Fred said lightly. "There's a movie playing next week that I've been dying to see. Sam's not interested and Joe's getting his braces tightened-"

"Wait!" Jodie interrupted, laughing. "Joe got braces? Since when? How does he look?"

"Um, about two or three years ago and like an even bigger dork than Sam if that's possible," Fred laughed. "Anyways, do you wanna go? It starts at eight."

Jodie stood up and smiled at him. "Meet you at the theater and grab some dinner afterwards?"

"Sounds good to me." Fred stood as well. "So it's a, um..."

"A date?"

"Yeah," Fred blushed. "A date."

Jodie laughed and pulled him into another tight hug. "I gotta get going now. But it was great seeing you again, Fred."

"It was good seeing you too, Jodie." Fred said lightly rubbing her back before pulling away.

"See you next week." Jodie gave him a small wink, took out her Book, and vanished in a puff of green mist.


End file.
